In the episode "The Launch Acceleration", Amy tries to use her "neurobiology bag of tricks" to increase the attraction between herself and Sheldon. In the final fifth-season episode "The Countdown Reflection", Sheldon takes Amy's hand as Howard is launched into space. In the sixth season first episode "The Date Night Variable", after a dinner in which Sheldon fails to live up to this expectation, Amy gives Sheldon an ultimatum that their relationship is over unless he tells her something from his heart. Amy accepts Sheldon's romantic speech even after learning that it is a line from the first Spider-Man movie. In "The Cooper/Kripke Inversion" Sheldon states that he has been working on his discomfort about physical contact and admits that "it's a possibility" that he could one day have sex with Amy. Amy is revealed to have similar feelings in "The Love Spell Potential". Sheldon explains that he never thought about intimacy with anyone before Amy.[82]
Live+7 data is currently available only through May 5, but the top dogs will likely see little change once the final numbers are in for the traditional September-May season. The top gainer in adults 18-49 was NBC’s “This Is Us” with an average lift of 1.8 ratings points. The number two spot was a tie between CBS’ “Big Bang Theory” and NBC’s “Manifest,” with both of those shows adding 1.5 ratings points on average. These numbers do not include “Big Bang Theory’s” series finale, however, which pulled in a 3.1 rating and 18 million viewers in Live+Same Day alone on May 16.
^ Jump up to: a b Kondolojy, Amanda (October 12, 2014). "'Gotham' Has Biggest Adults 18–49 Ratings Increase; 'Gotham' & 'Red Band Society' Top Percentage Gains & 'How To Get Away With Murder' Tops Viewer Gains in Live +7 Ratings for Week Ending September 28". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on October 16, 2014. Retrieved October 13, 2014.
Sara Gilbert as Leslie Winkle (recurring season 1, starring season 2, guest seasons 3, 9):[47][48][49] A physicist who works in the same lab as Leonard. In appearance, she is essentially Leonard's female counterpart and has conflicting scientific theories with Sheldon. Leslie has casual sex with Leonard and later Howard. Gilbert was promoted to a main cast member during the second season but resumed guest star status because producers could not come up with enough material for the character.[47] Gilbert returned to The Big Bang Theory for its 200th episode.[50]
Through the use of his vanity cards at the end of episodes, Lorre alleged that the program had been plagiarized by a show produced and aired in Belarus. Officially titled Теоретики (The Theorists), the show features "clones" of the main characters, a similar opening sequence, and what appears to be a very close Russian translation of the scripts.[207] Lorre expressed annoyance and described his inquiry with the Warner Bros. legal department about options. The television production company and station's close relationship with the Belarus government was cited as the reason that any attempt to claim copyright infringement would be in vain because the company copying the episodes is operated by the government.[208]
“The Big Bang Theory” premiered on Sept. 24, 2007, and for most of its run, was primetime’s most-watched comedy series. It remains one of the most successful sitcoms in TV history — and the longest-running multi-cam comedy of all time (recently surpassing “Cheers”). It has generated an estimated $1 billion and counting in syndication. The show has received 52 Emmy Award nominations and 10 wins, seven Golden Globe nominations, and the spinoff prequel, “Young Sheldon.”

Sheldon's mother Mary refuses to attend his wedding unless he invites his older brother George, with whom he is no longer speaking. Sheldon and Leonard fly to Texas to talk to George, who now owns a chain of tire stores. He refuses to attend and later explains to Leonard and Sheldon that the family sacrificed a lot to fund Sheldon's education, and he was stuck caring for their mother and sister Missy after their father died while Sheldon was in college. Sheldon never thanked him for this. Leonard takes George back to the hotel room where Sheldon apologizes for what he did and the brothers reconcile. George agrees to attend the wedding. Meanwhile, Howard and Bernadette's children contract pinkeye, infecting everyone except Penny, much to Amy's fury.

_{Laura Spencer as Emily Sweeney (recurring seasons 7–8, 10, starring season 9):[55] A dermatologist at Huntington Hospital. Emily went to Harvard and delights in the macabre and states that she likes her job because she can cut things with knives. Prior to meeting Raj, Emily was set up on a blind date with Howard. After finding Emily's online dating profile, Raj has Amy contact her as his wingman instead. Their relationship becomes exclusive, but Raj later breaks up with Emily when he becomes infatuated with the bartender Claire (Alessandra Torresani).}
And while the actor, 44, doesn't have any other gigs lined up just yet—his most recent stab at producing, CBS' Living Biblically, was canceled after 13 episodes in 2018—he's busy preparing for his biggest role yet: fatherhood. On May 3, 2019, he and girlfriend Alaina Meyer announced that they were expecting their first child together. "We are absolutely over the moon to announce that we will soon be welcoming a little one into this crazy and wonderful world," he wrote on social media, sharing the big news. "There truly is love out there for all. We hope ours is the ember of yours, as we feel yours is the ember of ours."
Raj meets with the woman his father set up for him, Anu. Her commanding personality and practical approach to marriage startle Raj but he agrees to go ahead with it. Howard criticizes him but apologizes; he just never expected Raj to give up on romance. Raj admits this to Anu so she proposes to him, and he says yes. Raj also sends out a relationship questionnaire to Leonard and Penny, which soon reveals that Penny does not think she ever wants kids, upsetting Leonard, who would like to have kids someday, and their friends selfishly badger them on the issue. After telling her father Wyatt who is also upset, Leonard tells Penny that he'll be okay with it, as he never thought he'd have her in his life. To get his mind off of it, Penny rents Leonard a Batmobile to drive in and have fun with for the day. Meanwhile, Stuart starts bringing home Denise at night, which is very uncomfortable for Howard and Bernadette. When they also try to have time to themselves, they wake up their kids.
Sheldon's childhood friend from Texas, Tam, is visiting the university with his son. Sheldon does not want to see him and the others wonder why Sheldon has never mentioned Tam. Tam is unaware Sheldon is angry with him, thinking they just naturally drifted apart. Sheldon's brother George does not know the reason either. Sheldon eventually reveals Tam promised he would move to California with Sheldon, but then got a girlfriend and stayed with her, leaving Sheldon feeling abandoned. Tam and Sheldon make up and Sheldon has Leonard take Tam to the airport. Meanwhile, Penny and Bernadette want to get to know Anu, impressed by her connections in the hotel industry. They tell her embarrassing things about Raj and wonder if they can go out with her again after Raj confronts them.
^{The Big Bang Theory started off slowly in the ratings, failing to make the top 50 in its first season (ranking 68th), and ranking 40th in its second season. When the third season premiered on September 21, 2009, however, The Big Bang Theory ranked as CBS's highest-rated show of that evening in the adults 18–49 demographic (4.6/10) along with a then-series-high 12.83 million viewers.[94] After the first three seasons aired at different times on Monday nights, CBS moved the show to Thursdays at 8:00 ET for the 2010–2011 schedule, to be in direct competition with NBC's Comedy Block and Fox's American Idol (then the longest reigning leading primetime show on U.S. television from 2004 to 2011).[95] During its fourth season, it became television's highest rated comedy, just barely beating out eight-year champ Two and a Half Men. However, in the age 18–49 demographic (the show's target age range), it was the second highest rated comedy, behind ABC's Modern Family. The fifth season opened with viewing figures of over 14 million.[96]}
_{"The Skank Reflex Analysis" "The Infestation Hypothesis" "The Wiggly Finger Catalyst" "The Russian Rocket Reaction" "The Rhinitis Revelation" "The Good Guy Fluctuation" "The Isolation Permutation" "The Flaming Spittoon Acquisition" "The Shiny Trinket Maneuver" "The Recombination Hypothesis" "The Beta Test Initiation" "The Werewolf Transformation" "The Hawking Excitation" "The Stag Convergence" "The Countdown Reflection"}
The Canadian alternative rock band Barenaked Ladies wrote and recorded the show's theme song, which describes the history and formation of the universe and the Earth. Co-lead singer Ed Robertson was asked by Lorre and Prady to write a theme song for the show after the producers attended one of the band's concerts in Los Angeles. By coincidence, Robertson had recently read Simon Singh's book Big Bang,[25][26] and at the concert improvised a freestyle rap about the origins of the universe.[citation needed] Lorre and Prady phoned him shortly thereafter and asked him to write the theme song. Having been asked to write songs for other films and shows, but ending up being rejected because producers favored songs by other artists, Robertson agreed to write the theme only after learning that Lorre and Prady had not asked anyone else.[citation needed]

In March 2017, CBS renewed the series for two additional seasons, bringing its total to twelve, and running through the 2018–19 television season.[3] On August 22, 2018, CBS and Warner Bros. Television officially announced that the twelfth season would be the series' last. This stems from Jim Parsons' decision to leave the series at the end of the season if the show were to have been renewed for a thirteenth season.[1][4][5] The series concluded with an hour-long finale consisting of two back-to-back episodes on May 16, 2019.[6][7] A retrospective, hosted by Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco, aired at 9:30 P.M. ET/PT, the night of the finale, following the season two finale of Young Sheldon.[8] 

In the show, the song "Soft Kitty" was described by Sheldon as a song sung by his mother when he was ill. Its repeated use in the series popularized the song.[83] A scene depicting the origin of the song in Sheldon's childhood is depicted in an episode of Young Sheldon, which aired on February 1, 2018. It shows Sheldon's mother Mary singing the song to her son, who is suffering with the flu.[84]
Mayim Bialik as Amy Farrah Fowler (guest star season 3, starring seasons 4–12):[52] A woman selected by an online dating site as Sheldon's perfect mate.[53] Amy is from Glendale, CA. While she and Sheldon initially share social cluelessness, after befriending Penny and Bernadette she eventually becomes more interested in social and romantic interaction. Her relationship with Sheldon slowly progresses to the point at which Sheldon considers her his girlfriend, eventually they get married. Amy believes she and Penny are best friends, a sentiment that Penny does not initially share. Amy has a Ph.D. in neurobiology.
Leonard and Sheldon are brilliant physicists—geniuses in the laboratory but socially challenged everywhere else. Enter beautiful, street-smart neighbor Penny, who aims to teach them a thing or two about life. Despite their on-again, off-again relationship in the past, Leonard and Penny have finally gotten married. Even Sheldon has found a female companion, entering into a "relationship agreement" with neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler, and he recently took their relationship to the next level by marrying her after a long courtship. In their free time, Leonard and Sheldon enjoy fantasy role-playing games with their ever-expanding universe of friends, including fellow scientists Koothrappali, Wolowitz, and Wolowitz’s adorable microbiologist wife, Bernadette, who is adjusting to life with their two children.

When Leonard receives a braggy Christmas letter from his brother, he feels bad about how little he and Penny have achieved in the past year. Leonard wonders if he and Penny should be thinking about the next step after two years of marriage, like buying a house or having a baby. Penny tells him she wants to do all those things someday, but she has a bunch of stuff she would like to do first.